Ebola Outbreak in Eastern Congo Spreads to Seventh Province, Officials Say

KINSHASA – Congo’s Ebola outbreak, already the fastest-growing recorded worldwide, has expanded to a seventh province, authorities said, with no indication that the disease’s spread is slowing.

Jean-Rene Galekwa Vundawe, governor of the northwestern province of Sud-Ubangi, said tests conducted by Congo’s national research institute identified the Bundibugyo virus in a sample. It is the rare strain of Ebola behind the current outbreak.

The statement was issued Thursday and carried by local media on Friday. It said the sample came from the Bulu health district in Sud-Ubangi, but provided no further details about the source of the infection.

The confirmation makes Sud-Ubangi the seventh province hit by the outbreak and the first in western Congo, marking a troubling expansion from an epidemic previously concentrated in the east. A case was found in Kinshasa in May involving someone who had traveled from eastern Congo, though the capital was not designated an affected province.

Government figures released Wednesday reported 6,942 cases and 3,349 deaths.

The World Health Organization has warned that the outbreak remains out of control and could exceed the 2014-2016 Ebola epidemic in West Africa, the deadliest ever recorded. That outbreak killed more than 11,000 people, mainly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

While the number of new infections and deaths has fallen in Ituri, the outbreak’s epicenter, cases have risen sharply in neighboring North Kivu and Haut-Uele in recent weeks.

Efforts to contain the disease are being hindered by insecurity, displacement, a strike by health workers and heavy population movement. Conditions are especially alarming at displacement sites, where people are already living in highly precarious circumstances.

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Sud-Ubangi borders the Central African Republic but does not share a border with any of the six eastern provinces that had previously confirmed Ebola cases: Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu, Haut-Uele, Tshopo and Bas-Uele.

Last month, WHO said the outbreak could spread beyond Congo into neighboring Central African Republic and South Sudan, both of which border affected provinces.

Neighboring Uganda, which had reported 20 cases since May, declared itself free of Ebola in July.

Last month, Congo began vaccinating health and other front-line workers with the Ervebo vaccine that was effective in past Ebola outbreaks caused by a different, more common type called Zaire.

Clinical trials are underway to find a licensed vaccine for the Bundibugyo virus.

The vaccination trials started in the eastern Tshopo, Haut-Uele and Bas-Uele provinces, Placide Mbala Kingebeni, Africa CDC’s director for research, clinical trials and innovation, said Thursday. Vaccinations in Ituri, the epicenter of the outbreak, are set to start next week, he added.